Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Ancient Coin Review 83 : Antique Gold Coin Sultan Alaudin Riayat Shah - Johor Sultanate (1527-1564 CE)


This is my another gold coin from Sultan Alaudin Riayat Shah era. He was the son of the last Malacca Sultan, Sultan Mahmud Shah who fled from Malacca after the invasion of Portugese. He became the first ruler of Johor Empire in 1527CE.he set up his capital at Johor Lama situated on the Johor river. He promoted foreign trade and was able to attract a fair amount of commerce. However Johor was captured by Acheh in 1564CE and became its vassal state until the collapse of the Acheh Empire in 1641CE.
 Looking at the Arabic calligraphy used, its quite tricky as the calligraphy is compressed to fit on the coin face. However it has the resemblance to Thuluth & Sini. Or probably this is how Malay calligraphy was derived. I noticed also similar calligraphy was used on the tombstone ( pic edited from artmelayu.bs) of the same Sultan in Johor except all vertical alphabets were elongated to fill the column.



As for this coin, there are some errors in the words used.
Notice the Sultan is written ثلطان  instead of سلطان
There is also a missing ي in the word Al mu'minin and missing ين in Aladdin
My other coin is in below link
Antique Mas Johor

Octagonal gold coin ( Mas) under the rule of Johor Sultan Alaudin Riayat Shah 1 ( 1527-1564AD). This coin is heavily covered with patina. I prefer to keep it this way rather than cleaning it away.


Similar coin was sold for SGD3000 ( USD2200) in Lot 189 in the Collectibles Auction Asia (CAA) Auction 5/2015 held on 18 April 2015 at Landmark Village Hotel, Singapore.


Obv: Sultan Alaudin سلطان علاالدين
Rev: Khalifatul Mukmin خليفة الموْمنين

weight : 2.10gm
Dim : 16mm
Rarity : RRRR ( ref SS1)
Market Price : USD2200

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